A sustainable, carbon neutral methane oxidation by a partnership of methane oxidizing communities and microalgae |
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Authors: | van der Ha David Bundervoet Bert Verstraete Willy Boon Nico |
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Affiliation: | Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology (LabMET), Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Gent, Belgium |
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Abstract: | Effluents of anaerobic wastewater treatment plants are saturated with methane, an effective greenhouse gas. We propose a novel approach to treat such effluents using a coculture of methane oxidizing communities and microalgae, further indicated as methalgae, which would allow microbial methane oxidation with minimal CO2 emissions. Coculturing a methane oxidizing community with microalgae in sequence batch reactors under continuous lightning yielded a factor of about 1.6 more biomass relative to the control without microalgae. Moreover, 55% less external oxygen supply was needed to maintain the methane oxidation, as oxygen was produced in situ by the microalgae. An overall methane oxidation rate of 171 ± 27 mg CH4 L−1 liquid phase d−1 was accomplished in a semi-batch setup, while the excess CO2 production was lower than 1 mg CO2 L−1 d−1. Both nitrate and ammonium were feasible nitrogen sources for the methalgae. These results show that a coculture of microalgae and methane oxidizing communities can be used to oxidize dissolved methane under O2-limiting conditions, which could lead to a novel treatment for dissolved methane in anaerobic effluents. |
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Keywords: | Methanotroph Autotroph Phytoplankton Biofloc |
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